huppert



March 13, 1945. w HUPPERT Re. 22,617

COMB

Original File; Aug. 7, ,1941

- v INVENTORV j W: 4 lA/Vf zfappsez' BY MM ATTORNEY Reiasued Mar. 13, 1945 UNITED STATES I PATENT OFFICE."

COMB

William Huppert, New York, N. Y., assignor to Delamere Company, Inc., a. corporation of Delaware Original No. 2,276,273, dated March 17, 1942, Se:

.rial No. 405,726, August '7, 1941. Application 1 for reissue December 16, 1943, Serial. No. 514,574

8 Claims.

Another object is to provide a comb that will remain in it inserted'position without slipping and without the use of any auxiliary retaining means.

Further objects are to provide a comb of novel, simple, and inexpensive construction.

The comb has a highly resilient back formed with a row of teeth projecting therefrom. The teeth are somewhat blade-shaped, having their middle portion in contact, or substantially in contact, and tapering both towards the lower and upper ends to provide hair entering spaces between the lower ends and hair receiving spaces between the upper ends. Upon inserting the comb into the hair, which may be done by merely pushing it into place, the teeth will spread because of the flexibility and resiliency of the back, thus permitting the hair to pass through the normally closed or constricted passages between the mid dle portions of adjacent teeth, into the enlarged spaces between the upper ends of the teeth. When the comb is so inserted, the resiliency of the back will cause the teeth to close and to wedge or look the hair in the spaces between their upper ends. I

The invention will appear more fully from the following description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a face view of a comb embodying the invention;-

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale, with a portion of the back brokenaway;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the comb;

Fig. 4 is a. section in elevation taken on the line 4-4 or-Figure 1;

Fig. 5 is a conventionalized face view of a modification; and

Fig. 6 i a section in elevation thereof, taken on the line 6-5 of Fig. 5. 1

The comb may be made of metal, plastic, or other suitable material. It comprises, generally, a back ill and a set of teeth Ii projecting from the back.

A distinguishing feature of the present invention is that the back H] is of a highly flexible and resilient construction, permitting of flexure and resilience not only in the direction or its length but in other directions as well.

The teeth are blade-shaped, each having a relatively broad or wide middle portion I2 and tapering from said portion both towards the lower ends 13 and the upper ends orroots l4.'- The teeth are so disposed that the proximate edges l5 of the middle portions of adjacent teeth con tact, or substantially contact, each other. The spaces I16 between the lower ends of the teeth control the amount of hair to be received, and eventually locked, in the spaces ll between the upper ends of the teeth. The teeth may be shaped witha compound curvature in profile, as

shown in Figs. 4 and 6,, although such curvature is not essential to the invention.

1n the form of the invention illustrated in Figs.

1 and 4, the back In is offset from the planeof the teeth II in the manner described in my Reissue Patent No. 21,131 of June 27, 1939, and is connected to the teeth by integral connecting per. tions I8 that are so disposed as'to be hidden by the hair when the comb is in place. Corrugations I! are formed in the back between the upper ends of the teeth, as best seen in Fig. 2, to increase the flexibilty and resiliency of the back as well as for the purpose hereinafter described.

A modification of the invention is illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 in which the back 20 extends in the general plane of the teeth, instead of being offset from them, and is formed with corrugations 2| between the upper ends of the teeth.

The comb, when made of metal, maybe stamped from a fiat blank of suitable sheet metal and bent to shape. In this case the corrugations 19 further serve to draw the adjacent teeth together after they have been stamped in spaced-apart relation from the blank. Where the comb is formed of plastic material, it may be made by any known molding process.

Because of the high flexibility and resiliency of the back, upon insertion of the comb into the hair by merely pushing it into place, the teeth will spread apart slightly permitting the hair to enter into the spaces [1 and to be locked therein, thus not only holding the hair in place but reventing the comb from slipping. I

I am aware that one of the early improvements in combs is disclosed in-Patent No. 754,949 to Wilcox, who proposed to provide a comb in which the points or lower ends of the teeth meet on a curved line and are sprung out of their normal plane laterally to produce a clamping or gripping action on the hair. Patent No. 1,684,362 to Sawyer describes a comb having teeth spaced closely together and formed with elongated central openings'so constructed that the side walls.

a manual flexure of the comb. I have found that providing a comb with a highly flexible and resilient back decreases the resistance to insertion of the comb in the hair and increases its gripping action on the hair.

the comb is so flexible that the slight resistance oil'ered by the hair itself insertions)? comb is suihcient automatically to hex the'back and to spread the teeth apart, the teetli'then closing together by the inherent resiliency of the;

back to grip the hair firmly in the spaces between the roots of the teeth and to hold the comb against slippage. I

Various modifications in the details of com struction herein shown and described may be made without departing from the scope or invention as defined in the claims.-

WhatI claim is: I I l. A hair retaining comb comprising a flexible and resilient back and a set of teethprojeeting therefrom, said teeth having relatively wide middle portions, with the lateral edges of the wide portions of adjacent teeth substantially contact ing each other, and tapering from the wide portion both toward the lower and upper ends, said back having corrugations in the spaces between adjacent teeth.

'2. A hair retaining comb comprising a fieinble and resilient back and a set of teeth projecting therefrom, said teeth having reiativelythin and wide middle portions, with the lateral edges or the wide portions of adjacent teeth substantially contacting each other, wide portion bothtowards the lower and upper ends, the back being of substantially the same thickness as the teeth and having corrugations in the spaces between adjacent teeth; 8. A comb comprising a back oiiiexibleresilient material and teeth projecting nom -the back, said teeth having intermediate portions thatsubstantialiycontact each other, said back having substantially li-shap d "portions in the spaces between adjacent teeth.

4. A comb comprising a back of flexible resilient material, and teeth projecting fromthe back, said teeth having intermediate portions that substantially contact each other, and hair retaining spaces between the roots of the teeth above said portions, said back having corrugatlons' in the spaces between adjacent teeth.

5. A comb formed from a relatively thin piece 1 of flexible resilient metal comprising a back and a set of teeth projecting therefrom, said teeth having relatively wide intermediate portions that substantially contact each other, and hair receiving spaces between the upper ends of the teeth According to the present invention the back of above said intermediate portions, said back having corrugations in the spaces between adjacent teeth. I

and a set or teeth having relatively wide intermediate portions tapering therefrom both toward their lower and upper ends, the intermediate portions of adjacent teeth being substantially in contact with each other, said back having subst'antially U-shaped resilient portions between adjacent teeth whereby the back is sufliciently flexible and resilient to cause the teeth autom'ati- I I member connecting their upper ends, said conand tapering from the necting member having corrugations between the upper-ends whereby on spreading the teeth tensionis providedto effect a gripping action on the hair, *said corrugations extending transversely of the length of 'the'connecting member.

8. A hair retaining comb comprising a plurality of teeth having intermediate portions that substantially contact each other, and a member connecting the teeth together at their upper ends, said connecting member having substantially u-shaped resilient portions "between the upper ends of the teeth which portions are of greaterleng'th'than the spaces between the teeth, whereby on spreading the teeth tension is provided to 'eifect a gripping action on lthe'hair.

HUPPERT.

6. A comb'comprlsing a flexible resilient back, 

